Philippines, Rebels Reach Accord

By

Cris Larano and

Celine Fernandez

Updated Oct. 7, 2012 2:00 p.m. ET

MANILA—The Philippine government announced a framework agreement Sunday that it hopes will bring an end to more than four decades of secessionist conflict in Mindanao, the country's resource-rich but impoverished southern region.

President Benigno Aquino III said that government negotiators and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels had agreed to create a new political entity in Muslim-dominated areas in Mindanao to replace a...